$390bn

The ex­pected cost of US in­ter­est pay­ments on its debt in 2019, a close to 50% rise on 2017 lev­els. The Con­gres­sional Bud­get Of­fice pre­dicts that with unchecked spend­ing an­nual in­ter­est pay­ments will reach about $900bn by 2019.